 What makes for excellence in heart care? It starts with one of the most amazing teams of heart surgeons and cardiologists that I've seen assembled under one roof and the region's leading technology in a new $40 million facility. This is the nationally recognized Heart and Vascular Institute of Eastern Kentucky at Pikeville Medical Center. From January 23rd through the 27th, Kentucky Blood Center is holding their annual Big Blue Slam event. Similar to the Big Blue Crush, this blood drive aims to draw in new donors and fight the need for blood. Donors will also receive a limited UK basketball school long sleeve shirt and be entered to win two lower level tickets to the February 4th UK Florida game at Rupp Arena. Yes, starting next week, January 23rd through the 27th is our 15th annual Big Blue Slam blood drive event. It is an annual event versus Life South Community Blood Center in Florida. It's everybody loves competitions and loves Kentucky basketball. And so this is an event kind of centered around that to kind of use to leverage the competition aspect to help shore up the blood supply both here in Kentucky and in Florida. It's a way of you know, using a little bit of a rivalry that we have with Florida to kind of help both of us. Anytime we do, whether it's Big Blue Slam or Big Blue Crush, you know, we do really encourage appointments. We'll accept walk-ins, but we do encourage appointments strictly so we can make sure folks have an enjoyable experience and we can process you and serve you in an efficient manner. Donor centers are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Blood is always needed, so every donation is impactful. Yes, we hope you come out for Big Blue Slam this week, but we also hope you come out later in the year and help us because it's been a tough last few years and we want to make sure we're serving our 70-plus hospitals by making sure that blood is on the shelves when they need it. So if you're interested in making an appointment, go to KYBloodCenter.org or give us a call at 800-775-2522. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.